From the course: Tech Career Skills: Searching, Interviewing, and Landing a Job

How people are finding jobs now

From the course: Tech Career Skills: Searching, Interviewing, and Landing a Job

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How people are finding jobs now

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In this video, we will look at some tactics that job seekers are using successfully in today's chaotic job market. A successful job search will take more creativity and more patience than was the case, maybe two years ago or so. But there is no reason to feel discouraged or feel like there is a special mystery to a successful job search. Human beings have innovated and improvised for generations. We transformed from an agrarian economy to an industrial one, from a manual economy to an automated one, from a local economy to a global one. Today's market is a more challenging one, with too many changes, all occurring at once. As a result, it is hard to understand what is changing, how to best deal with it, and what techniques work and which ones do not. If you feel uncertain and confused, you are not alone. So, let's start with some techniques to help increase your odds for success. First, successful candidates are building for impact and coverage. This means these engineers can demonstrate core skills in specific areas and start adding value very quickly. But these candidates are also proving to be adaptable to changing business needs. For example, engineers with data analysis skills can use their data expertise to build complex business models using generative artificial intelligence or GenAI. This involves building new skills as well as deploying existing skills for new business needs. Second, unlike previous markets that rewarded growth at all costs, engineers now need to show that their work has business impact. Too often, engineers value their work in terms of the complexity of the problem. Now, they also need to make their case based on the usefulness of their solution to that problem. Third, contracting and consulting. Many engineers have looked at this as a false binary that you can either aim for the variety offered by consulting roles, or the sense of certainty offered by full-time roles. In this age of companies cutting back on formal recruiting roles and hiring managers dealing with sudden business changes all the time, I am seeing successful candidates using consulting roles to get their foot in the door for more long-term roles. I'm also seeing full-time employees transitioning from long term roles to lucrative and more flexible consulting roles. Finally, successful candidates are framing their career narrative by way of storytelling and evangelism. For too long, engineers have believed that their technical work speaks for itself. However, it is just as important for engineers to present their work as part of a larger mission to tell the story of how they adapted to the needs of the business, how they shaped the business as a whole based on their insights, how they built not just muscle for the business, but also the connective tissue, telling the story is critical not just to get a great job, but to shape your own career and differentiate yourself from the thousand other candidates with similar skill sets. Now that we have a sense of what it takes to get the job, let's look at the other side and see how the hiring process works.

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